The present invention relates to an airbag arrangement in a safety system, especially in motor vehicles, with a gas generator arranged in a gas guide housing and at least one inflatable airbag connected to an assigned connection opening of the gas guide housing, and with a sliding element that can be displaced between two positions relative to the connection opening of the gas guide housing as a valve member for controlling the inflation process of the airbag, whereby the sliding element can be translationally moved in the gas guide housing that is sealed with a cover at one side, the cover acting as a stop for the sliding element, and the sliding element in its first position is arranged at a distance from the cover, this distance constituting the possible displacement path such that the gas released by the gas generator acts on one side of the sliding element causing the pressure level on each side of the direction of movement of the sliding element to be different and causing the sliding element to move in the direction of its second position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,919 describes an airbag arrangement with the aforesaid features. Arranged in the gas guide housing for controlling the gas flow from the gas guide housing into the airbag is a sliding element that is movable between two positions using one of the different pressure levels on either side of the sliding element. This known airbag arrangement is associated with the disadvantage that one or more additional connections for additional airbags cannot be triggered with the known sliding element.
Known from DE 196 20 617 A1 is furthermore an airbag arrangement with an inflation control in which the gas flow produced by the gas generator is conducted into an additional intermediate housing in which is arranged a component for generating a dynamic pressure that projects into the gas flow end and acts as a displacement force for a sliding element that acts as a valve member for controlling connection openings for preferably a plurality of airbags; the sliding element is fixed in its starting position exposing the cross-section of the connection openings via controlled releasable fastening means.
Although with the known inflation control it is already possible to control the inflation of one or even a plurality of attached airbags, if necessary also as a function of calculated collision data, whereby the movement of the sliding element is actuated by the released flow of gas itself without any need for outside energy, producing and installing the control apparatus is still a complex process because the intermediate housing is interposed therein and because of the component that produces the dynamic pressure for controlling the actual sliding element.
The object of the present invention is therefore to arrange a simple and effective control of the inflation process of at least two airbags attached to the gas guide housing in an airbag arrangement having the foregoing features.